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December 05, 2011

Strategic Planning In Health Care Organizations

Strategic Planning in Health Care Organizations

Introduction

Health care
organizations are facing many
challenges due to changes in
health care systems. The financial expenditures and in
education has grown complexities in research, partnerships and technological
aspects. The health care organizations are more focus on interaction,
collaboration and sharing of information and knowledge. Through this focus,
the
health care organizations gained the techniques in managing the knowledge to
create and sustain positive outcomes.

In many parts
of the world, the need for an effective strategic approach is in increasing
demand and the application of the
strategic planning that will suit to the system is still finding its way to
be recognized. There are many issues revolves around the health care. Most of
them are about the money and accessibility. The right implementation and process
of the strategic planning should be the first purpose of the health care
organizations, aside from acknowledging
prevention and cure as part of better
health and well-being.

What is
important is to apply all the knowledge form the past attempts in applying the
strategic planning in every part of an organization. The knowledge that every
health care professional gained from their study and
treatment experience is a solid basis for adopting the kind of method and
together, they will promote the health care, give the satisfactorily needs of
the patients, able to serve with
equality and efficient, yet cost-effective.

Background

For over the
years,
health care and technology has evolved according to the changing generation
but the treatments are still the same. The conditions of the health care
organizations, not only in the
U.S., have become more turbulent and uncertain. The
appeal of strategic planning is already weak and tends to lose its
popularity (Begun and Heatwole, 1999).

The
knowledge management of an organization is an essential and recognized tool
in emerging health care system. Organizations’ seeks to understand the human
health and processing which results on deploying the knowledge management
(Sharma, Wickramasinghe, and, Gupta, 2005).

As part of
strategic planning in health care organizations, the
knowledge-sharing and information seeking welcomes the attitude and
competency in processing the health outcomes of a patient. The knowledge
management utilizes and deeply explore the objectives in health care, and as
part of the integral asset in health care organizations such as
hospitals, knowledge can be defined specifically in attempting to resolve
health problems (Sharma, Wickramasinghe, and, Gupta, 2005). With respect to the
patient,
medical needs or attention, and collaboration, the knowledge in health care
can be operated with
technology base and recognize a routine in managing health.

Knowledge is
the foundation of discoveries and
strategies in which many organizations acquire knowledge to use them
dynamically. From the leader down to the staff or health care providers, the
knowledge has been passed and processed to create their own conclusion toward
the health case of one patient. Managing and processing the appropriate
knowledge is a
technique where people plays their important role in promoting
health, therefore, health care will be more successful when there is an
intensive application of knowledge.

The
Agency for Health Care Research and Quality gave three common goals of
health care organizations to create such strategic planning. First is to support
improvements in health outcomes. Health care organizations or hospitals are
creating paths to understand and improve
decision-making which can provide positive health outcomes. Second is to
strengthen the
quality measurement and improvement. With the use of reliable measures and
valid process, the outcomes of care can be anticipated as well as the causation
and preventive approach in health care. Through eliminating of
errors, the
incorporated program and efforts toward health can be implemented. And the
third common goal is to identify essential strategies to improve access, foster
appropriate use of
health care practices, and reduce unnecessary
expenditures. This goal is focus in delivering the health care with proper
approach and right handling of finances to promote cost-effective use of health
care resources (Johnson, 2003). These goals are simple to read but difficult to
comprehend since there are no applicable
standards to follow and no appropriate
strategy to accomplish them.

Many health
care organizations had developed strategic planning to coordinate with their
process in achieving their goal. Many organizations took or adopted different
approaches and yet, they forgotten the importance of knowledge as a simple step
in organizing the health care setting. This appropriate knowledge will
dramatically help many hospitals and other health care providers to understand
the value of their profession and the importance of their practice (Sharma,
Wickramasinghe, and, Gupta, 2005).

An effective
strategy should act as a force to mobilize the organization and everyone who are
under it and create discipline in pursuit of a goal. Strategies can broad the
organizations perspective, motivate the individuals and establish communication
(Begun and Heatwole, 1999). The continuous assessing of the organization’s
mission, vision, and strategies can help facilitate the health care’s dynamic
environment. With the recognition of different uncertainties, the strategic
planning will became applicable no matter what the situation is.

Methodology

A proposed
method emerged in the world of health care organizations. Due to the increasing
demand for health which all suggests the needs for a sound strategy, including
the strategic planning and resource allocation models, within the health care
organizations.

A strategy in
allocating the resource gives way to the birth of the
Importance-Performance-Awareness (IPA) that is applied in aiding decisions for
hospital managers. The strategy will provide information to the health
organization which is currently facing a turbulent environment. The IPA is a
mapping method that assists the strategic management resource allocation tasks
of managers in a broad array of internal or/and external health care environment
by efficiently utilizing the scarce resources and valuable organizational
capabilities (Graf, Hemmasi, and Strong, 1996).

With the help
of questionnaires designed to measure (a) the extent to which residents of the
communities being served were aware of the medical service offered by the health
care organization or hospital, (b) the importance the individuals attached in
having each of the services available within the community, and (c) the customer
satisfaction with the hospital performance in delivering of each of the service
offerings, which is entirely based on their personal experience or by simply
hearing it from others. With these three objectives of analysis, the manager or
health care leaders can identify their strength and weakness in promoting their
service and the area that needs improvement.

The
Importance-Performance-Awareness Analysis

The IPA
suggests that the majority of the services offered in various health care
organizations are highly important and satisfactory of the patients. And with
this evidence the examination of the importance, performance, and awareness is
made to assess the health organization’s strategic strengths and weaknesses and
improving the competitive position. After identifying the effectiveness of the
organization’s current position, the application of different strategies can be
suggested to improve or maintain the competitiveness and performance.
Accordingly, this measurement also provides focus which was divided into two,
the internal focus and external focus of the organization towards health. With
the appropriate organizational resources and managerial attention, the focus
cannot be easily diverted in the areas where there is a little value within the
organization or the patient.

The first
focus suggests the internal aspect of the organization is duly called
Importance-Performance Analysis. The services may come form the intensive-care
nursing, surgical nursing, cardiology, laboratory services, mammography, and
respiratory therapy. It also includes the outpatient services such as cardiac
rehabilitation, radiology, and mammography that fell in the out-patient
category. The areas of nursing services are also the strategic strength of a
hospital. When the hospital, as a health care organization and provider, done an
impressive job – the high quality of service will emerged and be very evident.
In other words, the performance of health care providers should maintain or
improve depending on to what the result maybe (Graf, Hemmasi, and Strong, 1996).
This mapping of performance will drive the entire organization in success
because of the established trust within the health community toward the
patients.

The second
focus which is the external aspect suggests about the services offered of the
organization which is highly associated with the customers’ awareness,
therefore, it is called Importance-Awareness Analysis. This also includes the
related in acquiring potential clients through the organization’s marketing and
promotional activities, which gives emphasis on the services they provide. The
importance of the health service is determined based on the result. Usually, the
importance is based on how important for the community in availing the services
the hospitals offered. On the other hand, the performance is based on the rating
of each individual toward the different service providers. The results will
reflect on the entire performance of the health care providers in attending the
needs of the patients. It can be also perceived that the ratings may come from
an ordinary individual and his judgment is according of his observation. And the
awareness is about the people’s idea or knowledge about the existence of the
hospital’s service. The awareness is a strategy where the entire health
providers can introduce the other services they offer within the community.

Apparently,
there are only few hospitals that use strategic planning and conducting analysis
that recognize the need the budget and resource allocation that should be
included in their current strategic planning.

Literature Review

The
flexibility of the IPA can be utilized in conducting analysis about the
organizations present effectiveness on the community. Examining the current data
and performance, with its impact on different communities will be added to the
strategic puzzle in pursuance to the strategic planning process. This
methodology will permit the health care organization’s management to tailor
prospective changes to the specific needs of distinct customers that needs
professional attention and health benefits.

In addition,
applying the IPA model will minimize the waste in scarce resources. The failure
to do incorporating the allocation process may result from the revenue
enhancement and market penetration. The idea of incorporating the resources will
conserve the resources; eliminate duplication of services and equipment within
departments that will allow the effective cost control. Through mapping the
individual’s performance toward their patient will create a strong bond between
the health provider and the patient.

Organizations
or hospitals can improve the efficiency of operating and their financial
performance through the use of interactive planning. But in contrary, the health
care providers or administrators who do not understand the process of an
effective interactive planning are the one who frequently make poor decisions.
The identified basis of their decisions is solely beyond their expertise which
deals with the intuition or feeling.

Health care
organizations that began to provide the specific strategic planning processes
and decisions to improve the efficiency of their services and performance is
always subject for critical analysis and never-ending scrutiny as the other
organizations’ pursuance to craft their own version of strategic planning. The
utilization of the strategic approach will lead the entire organization to
experience the benefits associated with providing health care, promotion,
innovation, and communication. The effectiveness of their strategy will reflect
entirely on the organization, from top to bottom, in which everyone is entitled
to contribute more of their skills and expertise.

The
application of knowledge management has already proved its essence in different
organization like in business sector by transforming it into a managerial
approach and successfully formulates corporate knowledge. In this scenario, the
healthcare organization must set their foot in storing knowledge and crafting
potential ideas and enhancing their skills for the purpose of better health.
Knowledge is a key process in ensuring information with high quality standards,
especially when the health is promoted within the organization. The gathered
knowledge will definitely improve research management and can strengthen
dissemination practice of the health care organizations to deliver the quality
of health care (Johnson, 2003).

With the
gathered essential information, computers, communication expertise, and
networking system, the application of knowledge as part of the health care
organization’s routine will make a great impact as well as improvement in their
nature of work.

As the IPA or
Importance Performance Analysis has been established within the health care
organization, the health care providers must anticipate the other development to
increase the efficiency of the services. At first, the proposal of making
patient’s records electronically that will be more appropriate to the technology
revolution (Parente, 2008 and Sharma, Wickramasinghe, and, Gupta, 2005). It is
better in accessing, updating, and processing than the bulky papers.

Aligning the
use of standardized language to use such as terminologies will establish a
strong communication, both within the domestic and international domain (Sharma,
Wickramasinghe, and, Gupta, 2005). Part of the communication is establishing the
relationship between the health provider and patient to promote the
effectiveness of health through facilitating the proper handling of the disease
or health problem of an individual (Allhoff, et al., 2006). The standardized use
of language is applicable in an organization where there is cultural diversity
environment.

The push to
use the methods and tools to make the transfer of information faster is viable
through the use of Internet service (Neuberger, Payne, and Wakefield, 2001).
This can lead to understand the health case of the patient, to communicate with
other health care professionals, or for review of the health problems which is
another creative approach in utilizing the knowledge management.

Technology and Health Care

Strategic
planning may is another step in reducing costs and providing health information
(Graf, Hemmasi, and Strong, 1996). One of the available and popular steps is the
adoption of technology that’s gives advantage on the business community. The
idea of technology in health care creates impact in different areas of health
care and the system. Many organizations viewed the electronic-based health
records of the patient will give another innovation its way to the health care
organizations.

Electronic
health records are expected to facilitate more information that will serve as a
basis in making decision. This is the action in applying the technological power
over the health care system since its growth and importance in different
industry (Garrett, 2007). Another advantage is to organize the health
information of the patient even though there are different health providers
availing their service. Many researcher as well as health care organization
viewed this strategy to improve coordination, reduce costs, eliminates
duplication of information and giving the consumer the right for accessibility
(AHCA and GHIIAD, 2006).

However,
organizations already recognized the existence challenging in promoting the
technology and its application to the health care system. Part of the challenge
is the continuous development, change and improvement that can only lead to lack
of precision and accessibility in health care application (Mahmound and Rice,
1998). It can be costly, but the concern is around the privacy of the
individuals if the accessibility is made too easy (Parente, 2008).

Various
health care professionals turn to look over the Internet to share their
knowledge or, in contrast acquire information. Through the Internet, people can
communicate and viewed medical information as a reliable source. This kind of
technology can bridge the gaps in promoting health and establish a better
communication between the medical professional and the patient even if they are
miles away. The National Research Council (2000) quoted that through supports
from financial and administrative transactions, public surveillance,
professional education, and biomedical research, the Internet can streamline the
administrative over head associated with health care, improve the health of the
nation’s population, better train health care providers, and lead the new
insights into the nature of disease. The Internet can provide another advantage
in terms of promoting the health knowledge.

Many health
care organizations provide information via Internet but if their advocacy is
promoting other campaigns than the health and wellness, and then we can say that
the health site is plagued by advertising. With advertising, the facts can be
distorted to emphasize their agenda. Likely, the promotion of one organization
about their state-of-the-art facilities is not about promoting health since they
emphasize their facilities. The foundation of better health is not only through
facilities, although they are also necessary, but to the application of the
technologies together with the knowledge and experience-based judgment of the
health providers. Therefore, the web sites should be first validating their
integrity before accessing. Every one should know that in Internet, the
individual has a freedom of expression that might be harmful to the individual
viewing the site, especially when it is for health care service. Individuals,
medical practitioners, students, and even a person who is under medication have
the power over the Internet. There is much information scattered from various
website. Its purpose is to provide fast accessibility (Rogerson and Fairweather,
2001).

Providing
information through Internet and useful in overcoming the distance, promoting
health, educating, and developing the health care systems. Various studies of
cases are also available through the net like providing information about the
symptoms and their treatment options, and the review on diseases and how to
prevent them from attacking (Neuberger, Payne, and Wakefield, 2001). But
technology is always a technology. There are instances that the transmission of
details can be interrupted; also there is a possibility that the information is
not accurate or worse all the cited information is not at all true.

Another part
of the health care development and strategy is done through the evidence-based
practice or EBP for the professionals. The EBP is specifically a type of service
improvement that became popular. It is the process where the service relied on
the experimental research in human service practices (Tanenbaum, 2005). The main
concept of the evidence-based practice is mainly involved the series of inquiry.
It is done through questioning, observing, and recording in which professionals
weighs their judgment through the use of current best evidence especially in
making decisions. The gathered knowledge from an individual is incorporated to
apply in the policymaking and advocacy (Chronister, et al., 2008).

All the
suggestion for development is applicable in the IPA method, since all are ideal
in promoting and providing health. The technology, standardization of language,
providing information through Internet, and the use of practice are not yet
applied to the IPA method. But all of their ideas are to create a quality
service and positive outcomes, in which accordingly the IPA is the measurement
of the quality provided services.

Discussion and Recommendation

Health care
organizations that provide strategies are also promoting awareness and medical
efficacy. The development of the strategic approach is rapid and the need for a
thorough result exceeds. Strategic planning in health care organizations
suggests providing satisfaction of the customers by exceeding their service
expectations (Graf, Hemmasi, and Strong, 1996).

The challenge
in health care organization is also part of the challenge faced by the health
care system that can affect the present and the future health care innovation
and strategic planning (Schiff, 2007). It is never been easy for the health care
organizations to provide a quality service, and it will never become easy not
unless all the members of the organization will make their effort in
establishing the procedure that will create an applicable service quality.
Therefore, a universal and unified strategy in health care should be
administered, free of access, equitable, responsive, rewarding quality,
accountable and cost-effective (Rudiger, 2009).

With the
customer health care needs and expectation, the health care organizations starts
to establish their competitive advantage into safety, as well as providing the
available resources. But through the changing environment, health care
organizations are more on the control and monitoring such changes especially
when it will cause a great impact on their strategic planning.

Technologies
and traditional procedures is valued in different types of industry, it is more
valued in the health care organizations. It is because technology can provide
the fast accessibility and enable to store big chunks of information. Meanwhile,
the traditional procedures such as questioning, observing, and reporting is
still valued in the medical process. The combination of the two processes will
be the central foundation of the health care organization’s strategic planning.
The method used is created to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the
health care organizations adopted process.

Customer
health care needs and expectations are always part of the competitive advantage.
Also, the resources and its availability are part of the advantage but is always
subject for change specifically the technologies. The analysis that been
conducted should be done annually to maintain the performance and awareness
level of the clients. It recommends continuing the process and improving some
aspect in which there is a weak point of knowledge application.

Make it sure
that the important setting is not missing when the health care organization
decided to adopt a strategic approach. It is important that the customers are
attached to the products or service and their attributes and the level of
satisfaction consumers expressed with the organization’s performance in meeting
their expectation or needs. The application of the strategic approach or
planning is always in the aim of assessing the importance employees associated
with various aspects of their jobs and outcomes. Another is identifying the
areas in which the development within the organization intervention would be
applicable and somewhat useful. And helping the management in avoiding
ineffective personnel policy changes in areas where there are efforts that have
a little benefit.

Part of every
organization is finding the strengths and weaknesses, which gives to their
greater understanding of the specific types of change activities which can
improve the performance within the organization, and giving the clearer
definition of the organizational resource and focus of the managerial attention.

Summary Questions

What is
the importance of health care in the community?

Identify
the proposed interventions in establishing a strategic planning for health
care organizations.

What is
the mainstream in creating the strategic planning fit for the entire health
care organization?

Why there
is an importance in satisfying the customers’ needs and further exceeding
their expectations toward the services offered?

What are
the challenges that an organization should meet when they are striving for a
strategic planning? And what do you think is the needed action for these
challenges?

Give at
least three advantages and disadvantages in using the technology in the
health care organization and practices.

Is the
use of evidence-based practice is still applicable when there is an
available technology?

What is
the main implication of the technology in updating, processing, sharing, and
recording the patient’s health records?

There are
many available resources where everyone can access the information about the
healthcare. How can you identify that the website is reliable and the
information is not harmful or distorted?

Based in
your own knowledge, what is the right action in establishing the appropriate
strategic planning?